The revised CSSF circular 12/552 and what it means for banks

Banks’ internal governance issues have, in recent years, received increased attention from regulators and international bodies, aimed primarily at correcting weak or superficial internal governance set-ups and practices.

In this context, the CSSF Circular 20/759 recently amended the CSSF Circular 12/552 on central administration, internal governance and risk management and aligned it with relevant European guidance (notably the EBA Guidelines on internal governance (EBA/GL/2017/11) and the Joint ESMA and EBA Guidelines on the assessment of suitability of members of the management body and key function holders (EBA/GL/2017/12).

Testimony to the importance of the topic in the coming years, the amendments made to the CSSF circular 12/552 go beyond mere cosmetic updates and:

• clarify certain internal governance requirements applicable to banks;
• define the scope of certain regulatory principles (such as the principle of proportionality); and not least
• formalise the CSSF’s approach and practice in certain areas.

In this podcast, Henri Wagner, the head of A&O’s Luxembourg banking regulatory practice, is joined by Carole Schmidt and Andrei Costica, who are respectively counsel and associate in the firm’s Banking-ICM and Regulatory team, in an interactive discussion on the key amendments to the revised CSSF circular 12/552.